You guys…I read…22 volumes of manga. Okay! No one yell at me but I kinda cheated by extending this readathon for myself to Wednesday -3 days over- ’cause I wanted to start posting my anime/manga content on Wednesdays buuuut other things pilled up and now here we are in December…better late than never! 😅 Still, I was glad I got through almost all of my TBR choices for this round, a different Manga Readathon I did earlier this year in June, I had only gotten through 5 volumes. That’s quite a leap in quantity I’m proud to say. However, I added a sprinkling of anime to that mix, which is always fun – no anime this time around but I did discover a few amazing stories! Into the pile, we go! 📚 Beauty and the Beast – Special 2-in-1 Edition (via Amazon) You may or may not know but I LOVED the 2017 live-action adaptation of BATB -read my fangirlings about it here if you wish- but what I adored even more than the film was the stunning new merch to come of it, including the books! I own a copy of Belle’s Library and it really is a beauty, reading it some nights before bed. While not expatiating much from the film’s story beats, this pair of manga does offer charming bits of internal dialogue from the dueling perspectives of the best relationship to ever grace the world of fiction. There was a great amount of care taken to include the lush rococo style into the backgrounds and adapting each character’s physique to suit the art style. Loved these and wish I owned a pair! Rating: 5/5 red roses 🌹 Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 5 by Mizuho Kusanagi (via Amazon) I have a different series going in depth with this particular manga -here- called Anime Wednesdays where I align the manga volumes and anime episodes of a series, it’s my first series so please be gracious. With this first set, I’m most anticipating when I get to the final volume where the anime cuts off and can finally see what happened after that beautiful tease of a cliffhanger the anime tragically had to leave on. I discovered Yona through the anime, it was canceled after 2 seasons while the manga is still currently running. The story beats are the same so far, only a few minor shifts, and this volume isn’t the one to cut off yet so, for now, it’s just a review of the anime, but it’s a lot of fun! I had to stop reading Yona for a bit when other things came up but it felt really good to get back to reading Yona again, hopefully, I’ll be finishing my Anime Wednesdays soon. Rating: 5/5 cherry blossoms 🌸 The Water Dragons Bride by Rei Toma (via Amazon) My first new series of the stack and oh my, was I hooked! Upon moving into her new house, a little girl named Asahi fall into a puddle and in a twinkling of bubbles, she comes up to a new world where she is sacrificed to the Water Dragon for good fortune. Her new friend Subaru tries to save her but this is her test of survival. The Water Dragon is much the apathetic creature, to an intriguing level. This would make a wonderful anime! The pastel, watercolor (how appropriate 🐟) cover art was enough for me to fall in love, I’m excited to read the rest as it comes out. Rating: 5/5 water drops 🐟 Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP (via Amazon) “Sakura is the princess of Clow – and possessor of a mysterious, misunderstood power that promises to change the world. Syaoran is her childhood friend and leader of the archaeological dig that took his father’s life. They reside in an alternate reality…where whatever you least expect can happen – and does. When Sakura ventures to the dig site to declare her love for Syaoran, a puzzling symbol is uncovered – which triggers a remarkable quest. Now Syaoran embarks upon a desperate journey through other worlds – all in the name of saving Sakura.” (via Goodreads) This is very much an “episodic” series, meaning new book = new world/dimension, and there is a secret plotline unfolding behind the main one but the most fun is in getting little snippets of each new world with the excitement and mystery of how they’re going to find the next feather there. As usual, the artwork the team has done for this manga series is wonderful, full of clear-lined dramatic darkness and subtle writing – towards the reveal of the secret, which I already know since I’m pretty sure it happened in the anime OVAs but there could be another one…I don’t know yet. 😉 Rating: 5/5 fires cause this story is fierce and I will follow it to the end! 🔥 V. B. Rose by Banri Hidaka (via Amazon) “Ageha gets the job of a lifetime – making her sister’s wedding dress. Ageha loves making handbags and other accessories, so when one of her sister’s dressmakers hurts his hand she jumps right in to help! And thus begins Ageha’s adventures at the fashionable Velvet Blue Rose.” (via Goodreads) I remember picking this up from donations purely based on the beautiful gold, symmetrical cover design, oldest one in my very stumped collection of manga, from 2004 – which the art style is evident of and the story so far is cute enough. I don’t think I’ll start collecting it (which would be hard anyway considering the final volume never got a translation) but I would like to see where it goes. Rating: 3/5 wedding bells 🔔 Happy Happy Clover by Sayuri Tatsuyama via Amazon Clover is a brave bunny, I love her spunk, she’s adorable! These are a bunch of short stories about the woodland creatures of Cresent Forest, very slice-of-life and adorable! I might continue this with the anime though. It’s cute in the same way a picture of a puppy is cute but actually watching them do the cute things is even better! 😊 Rating: 4/5 ripe strawberries 🍃 The Earl and The Fairy (via Amazon) “Lydia Carlton is a fairy doctor, one of the few people with the ability to see the magical creatures who share our world. During one of her rare trips to London to visit her father, Lydia’s quiet life is suddenly transformed when she is rescued from kidnappers by a mysterious young man! Edgar Ashenbert claims to be descended from the human ruler of the fairy kingdom, and he urgently needs Lydia’s help to find and claim his birthright, the legendary sword of the Blue Knight Earl. Things will never be the same for Lydia as she is pulled into a dangerous quest against dark forces!” (via Goodreads)  I had watched the subbed anime a while back and all I remember is that the ending was disappointing. (Spoiler, like they ended up together but they didn’t even end on a kiss so big letdown after watching 12 episodes of build-up…but on the other hand, I wasn’t feeling connected to the characters all that much with the sub.) Oh well, the manga is alot more intense than I remember! Oh boy – deeply mysterious, lots of suspicions, and some low-key manipulation from the male lead, the Earl? I love how much fun lore is packed into the story and Lydia is admirably confident in her beliefs as a fairy doctor…so we’ll see! Rating: 3/5 fairies ✨ Astra Lost in Space, Vol. 1 by Kenta Shinohara (via Amazon) “It’s the first day of Planet Camp, and Aries Spring couldn’t be more excited! She, along with eight other strangers, leave for Planet McPa for a weeklong excursion. Soon after they arrive, however, a mysterious orb appears and transports them into the depths of space, where they find an empty floating spaceship…” (via Goodreads) Well, I found a bad apple. Ugh, this was an exposition scrap-heap. The dialogue is clunky and repetitive, there’s a sprinkling of meta-humor about all their characters types but it doesn’t help them be charming by any means – and it was just sooooo boring, I skimmed the last 20 or so pages just to finish this one and move on. No thank you, Astra, you can stay 5,012 light-years away from me. Rating: 1/5 Comets 👎🏻 One Week Friends, Vol. 1 by Matcha Hazuki via Amazon “Yuuki Hase desperately wants to be friends with Kaori Fujimiya, the girl in class who seems to always be alone. Just when he thinks they’ve hit it off, she tells him her secret: Every week, her memories reset. Yuuki resolves to befriend her as many times as it takes but is he prepared for how much it will hurt to be one-week friends…?” (via Goodreads) I bought this volume while on a trip to visit my brother a few months ago at a B&N, drawn to the unusual size, thinner than a typical manga and the art style was interesting. Uniquely soft and well-lined, the story is sweet and wholesome, I’m excited to collect the rest of the series. Rating: 4/5 bento box lunches 🍜 A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Oima (via Amazon) “Shoya is a bully. When Shoko, a girl who can’t hear, enters his elementary school class, she becomes their favorite target, and Shoya and his friends goad each other into devising new tortures for her. But the children’s cruelty goes too far. Shoko is forced to leave the school, and Shoya ends up shouldering all the blame. Six years later, the two meet again. Can Shoya make up for his past mistakes, or is it too late?” (via Goodreads) With the anime movie unavailable to buy in the US, I spied the first three volumes of this at work on Saturday and thought why not? I didn’t know the plot very well other than Shoja being a bully and wow, is this story amazing! The art style is immensely detailed, almost to a horrific level for me but it’s a very fresh and beautiful story. It’s not at all as light-hearted as most shoujo try to be even with this type of subject material, it’s raw and real and deep in it’s writing. Some reviews I’ve read said they couldn’t get into liking the characters as nice as the story is – I went into this not expecting myself to because that isn’t the point – especially in the first volume, everyone is a jerk and Shoko is mostly a blank sheet at that point since you’re following Shoya’s perspective. Vol. 2 and 3 get alot better. Shoya’s phycological growth through being the bully to becoming the bullied to being completely shunned by his friends and other classmates is very intriguing and seeing how he tries to better himself and discover the types of people he wants to surround himself with is a feat I hope other former bullies take to heart as well. Others say that this is their first manga ever and I’m so happy it’s this important story! Rating: 5/5 filled notebooks 🖊️ Manga Classics: Jane Eyre (via Amazon) “As an orphaned child, Jane Eyre is first cruelly abused by her aunt, then cast out and sent to a charity school. Though she meets with further abuse, she receives an education and eventually takes a job as a governess at the estate of Edward Rochester. Jane and Rochester begin to bond, but his dark moods trouble her. When Jane uncovers the terrible secret Rochester has been hiding, she flees and finds temporary refuge at the home of St. John Rivers. Charlotte Bronte’s classic tale of morality and social criticism takes on an entirely new life in this Manga Classic adaptation of Jane Eyre.” (via Goodreads) The only other adaptions I’ve seen of this piece is the 2011 film with Mia Wasikowska & Michael Fassbender – beautiful and well-acted – and 2000 Musical by Paul Gordon & John Caird, of which I never saw, but the soundtrack was great. I’ve...

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Sorry! I woke up at 9:30 am, I’m not sure I’m late or not? Time zones are a little wonky at Ilvermorny. Oh well, I didn’t get to bed until 1 am taking care of my Christmas tree and other plant friends. Anywho, going to sit in the common room to finish my coursework now. My Beijing: Four stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’ve forever been in love with Asian culture and its traditions and this book is such a treat, following a little girl named Yu’er and her grandfather who live in a hutong (basically a close-knit neighborhood) with a few of their neighbors. It features four little intimate dreams coming to life in one magical way or another – Yu’er wanting to become an Olympic swimmer, a musical bug theater, a sweet story about how her grandfather & grandmother meet through the power of stamp collecting, and a grumpy old painter. The colors and art style were delightful, I wonder if Nie Jun imbued some magic into his paintbrushes as he was illustrated this, I only know of one blonde-haired craftswoman with some sparkle in her silvery brush but that’s a story for another day. I heard the Beijing School of Magic has a renowned all-girls martial arts team, though. It’s now about 10 o’ clock and I haven’t eaten yet but thankfully Pudgewudgie Tower has its own kitchen and a few of the older students already made breakfast. Usually, we just have an array of cereals stacked in the cabinets and different kinds of milk for whoever wants which – cow, soy, almond – someone has a jug of goats milk for some reason – but it’s the holidays so I guess they went all out. I made myself a cup of green tea, and grabbed a plate to fill with a couple whole-wheat Belgian waffles, a pack of cinnamon butter, an apple, and a block of chocolate for later. The Shrouding Mist is usually clear by this time but it’s been getting colder, maybe the Naiads were still sleeping, I like to think their warm-blood helps clear the morning mist, just not enough to unfreeze the whole lake, every creature has their own type of magic. Naiads are mostly a nice bunch, just easily offended sometimes, then they can be real jerks trying to drown people and what not. Maybe the summer heat just gets to their heads quickly around that time but I get along with them well enough. (It’s a bit cold…) Tragically, we don’t have a Hagrid here at Ilvermorny, Care of Magical Creatures is more of an elective than a required class so there’s no set teacher for it. But I love getting his letters every week! He suggested a million different teas for me to try and tells me about his most recent eggs that have hatched and I’ve been telling him all about Jackalopes and their wonderful babies. Last night was kind of lonely for me but it was past curfew to go out and tell the trees. Do you ever tell the trees your troubles? or secrets? It’s great for the mind, we tell the trees our struggles and our heartaches and they return the favor through a bit of hard labor and creativity, by giving us a bit of their soul to hold in our hands and read their story through all the beautiful books throughout the world. So I will have to decorate my tiny bedside tree alone but at least I can enjoy hearing what one of his friends has to say. The Serpent’s Secret: Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond by Sayantani Dasgupta ⭐⭐⭐⭐ How beautiful is this cover?! There are some recent fantasy/adventure books that have grown within the shady landscape of Uncle Rick’s garden of hyacinth, peonies, and narcissus – deeply rooted in folklore & mythology, charming characters, a rich world to dive into – and this was a fun adventure to join the fields! I’d explain the plot myself, but I’d rather give that honor to the beautifully illustrated book trailer – the art featured is sprinkled throughout the book as well and bursting with vibrant color! I read this along with the Playaway and while it clocks in at 32 chapters, they’re very short, no longer a real-time than 10-15 minutes. This first in a series does wonderfully in flourishing the inspirations of its Indian/Hindu mythological elements and characters, I love discovering a different nation’s perspective on the reason why the world is the way it is. Through Kiran’s journey, there are countless riddles, serpents that speak in rhyme, winged horses, and a bright yellow oh so puny bird Even our main characters, Kiranmala, Lalkkamal, and Neelkamal, are derived from Indian children’s stories. I can’t accurately comment on the rep of Indian immigration, but there was a cheeky reference to a border checkpoint, also the overall theme of acceptance and holding on to your heritage. Kiran is just like any other 13-year-old girl always being embarrassed by her parents and dealing with snooty-faced fellow girl bullies, I like her for being irrevocably confident in her family, the one who raised you and took the time to love you, it isn’t always the people who brought you into the world and that’s completely fine. She has no doubts about who her family is. Refreshingly, this didn’t end on a big, dramatic cliffhanger – maybe some pre-pubescent, adorkable flirting… (:3) But the best part was the author’s note afterword, detailing the inspirations for DasGupta’s modern fantasy. So yeah, I really enjoyed this! Time to go to find a yellow dragon! Tuesday, I read a little here and there but I was mostly in the library for work, but at least there are infinity mugs full of hot chocolate! And for working there, I don’t have to pay any overdue fees! Which is fabulous since I check out a LOT of books, mostly No-maj graphic novels, and Herbology guides. It’s now Wednesday, which is usually my manga/anime day. So, I decided to catch up on the series, Yona of the Dawn, over at the Lion’s Den in Stockbridge later today, after cleaning my room for Saturday inspection. We have the Steward Square instead of Hogsmeade but it’s too crowded for my liking, especially during the holiday break. I don’t mind the 45-minute broomstick ride, and the various lion painting and statues everywhere in the pub are sweet to talk to about your day. Except for Gary by the entryway, he doesn’t like people getting mud all over his carpet but it has a dirt-repellent spell put on it, I don’t know why he has to be so stingy. Samson is nicer, he’s a part of a sign under a table by the front window with a perfect reading lantern, it’s my favorite spot. I was talking with him last week about the new lion king remake and showed him the teaser trailer, he laughed with a wheezy and almost hyena-like boisterousness. He asked me how the talking animal’s angle was going to work, I assumed either bracelet charms for the whole crew or a charmed throat spray. My brother came to meet me with his DVD player so we could finally complete Soul Eater and it was a fun ending! Only a brief stay, however, he had to go for some last minute Christmas shopping with mom so it was just me, my manga and a cup of apple cider (I’m not a pixie wine drinker) with Samson napping above my head. They have live music all the time, today is soft rock swirled with the booming laughter of a few guys getting high off giggle water by the bar, the lion painting’s odd circus tricks weren’t helping deafen the volume either. I moved to the velvet-backed booths in the dining area next to the fireplace, the wind was ear-biting on the way over here so I ordered a bowl of beef chili. It only cost 40 Dragots (or $20), they’ll accept either but I didn’t have any cash on me. I might come back up Saturday though, they’ll be playing upbeat renditions of Sinatra songs! Yona of the Dawn – Vol. 6 – 10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I can’t say much here being in the middle of the series but it’s progressing very nicely! It’s a real shame the anime wasn’t able to reach this far. (The last volume to be connected to the anime is Vol. 7) A Yule Ball sounds much more stellar than Prom…we just have prom… like any other No-Maj school, basically – maybe some magical embellishments, but yeah, it’s just prom – where eventually someone’s going to spike the punch or just be a general annoyance trying to get a Fortnite dance off going and ending up in “jail” for the rest of the night. Ours is annual during the second week in March so it’s already passed, this year was space-themed. Complete with moving constellation cups, an exclusive 30 Seconds to Mars/Walk the Moon/Jefferson Starship music playlist, and a popping rocks bar (Just a Tip: don’t close your mouth when the fireworks start, they’ll move to explode from your ears and give you a terrible migraine.) My dress was fun, sun-based with a warming spell woven into it so, despite the spaghetti-straps, I was warm as a toaster. (*trying to dig through my folders for the picture) I’m not huge on prom, it’s just a big dance and I’m not very good at that. I’d much rather just sit and enjoy the music – and not that I hated the music, it just got repetitive with only three artist choices, should’ve expanded their single-rity…(eh? No? No…okay, all I’m saying is Neptunes has a wider scope of songs.) Staying on brand, I brought a space adventure to read on the bleachers. They came with these “eclipse” glasses that make the pages jump out, with a totally immersive, atmospheric charm to block out the music from the DJ. All I can hear is an electrolyzed voice reading off briefing notes… Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff … stars ~To be filled with words soon…~ Finally, the day of the Christmas Feast! It’s gotten fiercely cold this week with all the wind, but as much as I hate this biting weather, I thought it best to check on Clive. We have an owlery but being a barn owl, he prefers tree holes, we decided to meet in the middle and I made him a box on the edge of the forest at the west gate. If it were a nicer day, we would go on a hike, well I’d be the one who hikes picking up trash along the forest trail, he’d fly around catching voles and whatnot. But it’s much too cold now to venture in there, while it’s not off limits, no one really knows all the creatures that lurk within the green so we don’t generally leave the beaten path. Anywho, Clive wasn’t in his box when I got there….okay, this is between you and me, friends. I’m technically not supposed to have this on school grounds but a pal of mine who recently worked on Christopher Robin sent me one and if you know me and my Disney obsession then you know I couldn’t get rid of it… plus it’s helpful! It’s just a special charm bracelet that aids in calling and understand the speech of my beautiful barn owl…where else do you think the impressive “Disney magic” came from? But only I can hear what he says and at least I modified it to call only Clive now and not every owl on the coast heh…He has to be within a fixed radius for me to understand all his chirps of course but if you put it between your teeth and blow, you’ll sound just like  whatever owl you’ve charmed it to call. Unfortunately, I will not be translating what he says for your reading...